'How to Train Your Dragon 2': Toothless sequel on ice

Spoiler alert: This review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.How to Train Your Dragon 2 is neither as breathtaking nor as fun as it ought to be. There are a few high points. The first time that the ice damage is revealed; it feels like something new. The ending battle sequence is amazing, and the story isn’t afraid to pull any punches when trying to tug at the heart strings and give the main character motivation to take a job he doesn’t want. Welcome to the land of the Vikings where almost everyone speaks Scottish English, except Jay Baruchel who speaks Nasal English. Aside from Baruchel’s inability to disguise his voice into something less nasally, the city-state of Berk is populated by annoying characters who have no emotional attachment to each other beyond that of distantly related brother and sister. The story worth coming for that takes up all of 7 minutes of the film is that between the mother and father of Hiccup. They prove that love conquers everything but… spoiler, and in the end that which could not be conquered originally is conquered. Everything else in the story is awkward, like the end kiss between Hiccup and Astrid, who don’t really ever seem to be in love, or like something out of a 1980s cold war thriller where peace is achieved through superior firepower. Pick a war between Vietnam and Afghanistan and find one that where victory has been achieved with superior firepower. In the end, there are going to be people that you cannot reason with, and so you must remove them from your life and/or society. There is no bonus scene at the end, so don’t bother sticking around through the credits unless you like that kind of thing or want to honor the hard work of all those who participated in the creation of How to Train Your Dragon 2. While the movie is disappointing, it is still a pleasant diversion.